Birthday and Ballgame

Happy Birthday to Mike today! We had some small celebrations at home today then went to a ballgame. We all had a great time. Thank you to Brian and Nikki for the tickets.

Fall Sensory Treasure Search

I added corn kernels, oatmeal, silk leaves, wooden pegs, rocks, plastic jewels, sifters, and funnels. Lizzy sifted and searched for the plastic jewel treasure. Lizzy was very excited each time she found a jewel!

Mail

Lizzy has been very interested in sending and receiving letters from family. Lizzy enjoys coloring something, then finding an envelope for it, a stamp, and address label. We write the address and then Lizzy rides her trike to the mailbox to mail it. Here she is…….she always wonders where the letter went after she puts it in the mail slot. Everyday Lizzy comes with me to check our mailbox and hopes something is for her. Sure enough there’s usually something for her or something I can say is for her.

Teddy Bears Picnic

I was researching some ideas for Teddy Bears Picnic theme for work and I got inspired to have our own teddy bear picnic at home. It rained pretty hard the day before and the ground outside was still wet so we had our picnic inside.  I was also missing the kolaches I use to get in Texas that they don't seem to have anywhere else but Texas so I decided to try to make my own. We had them with our picnic. Although they did not taste just like the ones I like they will do for now. Lizzy enjoyed her picnic and she gave her teddies some teddy grahams to eat. 

Window Markers

You can't really see it from this picture but these window markers are pretty cool. They are crayola window markers with crystallize effects. We have the perfect sliding window door that covers the whole back wall so I knew I wanted to get Lizzy some window markers. She had fun with her dad drawing all over the window and watching the colors actually crystallize. The colors aren't very bright but they actually work and crystallize which is pretty cool to watch and look at afterwards.

Rice Krispies

Lizzy insisted on buying a large bag of marshmallows but she actually doesn't eat very many much less the whole bag so in an effort to use them up we made smores last week with our homemade solar oven and this week we made rice krispie treats. Lizzy was amazed at how the marshmallows had expanded after being heated and she enjoyed mixing the rice krispie cereal in. Most of all she enjoying eating the treats and washing the mixing bowl in the sink.

Treasure

Some of my most special memories growing up was all the nature walks my family would go on. Each time we went I would find little treasures to take home like shells, rocks, sticks, flowers, moss, butterflies, seeds, nuts, and whatever else I could find to take home in nature. When I would play in the playground at school I always looked from clear or cool looking rocks to take home. These were my treasures. I still have some of these treasures with me.  I would put all the little rocks I found in the treasure chest bellow, and other things in another wooden box. I believe this box originally belonged to my grandmother. I wrote my name on it when I was a child and now Lizzy's name is on the box too. Lizzy has some treasures of her own now.

Dance

These are some pictures from this past Saturday when Lizzy when to a combo dance class to try it out. Lizzy had fun but there were way to many kids in one class with one instructor in my opinion and they had a very small window to view the class from with about 50 parents huddled over it standing up trying to watch. I think we will either try looking for a dance studio that is more comfortable and more one on one or stick to swimming lessons at the place Lizzy went to over the summer. I also hear the Gilbert rec center has great classes but we have to wait until the next season to sign up. For now we will just have fun dancing at home.

Museum of Natural History

One of the things on our summer bucket list was to go to the Museum of Natural History here in Mesa. I was pleasantly surprised by the museum although it's not as big as the Houston one it was manageable and fun for a toddler. Lizzy enjoyed some parts more than others. She got scared by the loud dinosaur noises being played throughout the museum. In an effort to keep her from totally melting down I gave her my camera to take pictures of everything in the museum. That worked and we went through the whole museum. The first four pictures are some of the pictures Lizzy took herself.

Tonto Natural Bridge

We ventured out to a day in Payson, AZ. We had lunch, visited the natural bridge, and Lizzy did some shopping. We saw the natural bridge from all the viewpoints but didn't actually hike down. Our goal is to come back when it's cooler and hike down under the bridge.

Taking care of Plants